My New "Hobby"

I don't know if I'm at the point right now where I'd call it a hobby, especially since I never thought that I would be doing it. I had even been talking about how much I don't like doing it, but something in me just clicked. I blame Pinterest. I saw a "how-to" on something I've kinda been wanting for a while and I finally thought....."Well, I can do that." So I asked Bryan and found one I thought would be good for me--being a beginner and not really planning on doing too many crazy hard things. Plus it was on sale for a pretty good price. And a day later, I came home with this:

TA-DA!!!

That's right. I'm sewing. Literally, I had been talking 2 days earlier about how I would never do this. But I really want this pillow (which I haven't gotten to yet) and again, I keep seeing these cute, simple ideas on Pinterest and I know I have to be at least as talented as some of the people on there. Plus, there is just so many things to do with fabrics. Like make curtains--which I have some ideas on. Anyway, I had seen another pillow on Pinterest (not the above mentioned one) and it was a "no-sew" pillow and I was like "why not?" It didn't turn out the way I thought it would. So I had a yard of fabric on a pillow that didn't look so hot. But now I had a sewing machine. I found another pillow (guess where) and it was simple and cute--just what I needed to start my sewing adventures. And this was the finished product:

And it only took me like 2 hours--which includes ironing, cutting with some pretty crappy scissors and using safety pins in place of sewing pins because I forgot I needed them when buying everything at the store. Don't worry, all of them are now on a list to pick up sooner rather than later. Can I just mention I proud of myself I am? Bryan thinks it's a little weird, I'm sure. I can't stop telling myself how cute it is! Anyway, I will now move on to the first pillow I wanted--and maybe some curtains and a few skirts as well. Who knows what will come of this!!

On a further note we also found some AWESOME chairs this weekend for our dining table. I've been looking around for a while, but haven't ever found any that were what I (and Bryan--because sometimes he really has an opinion on things) wanted. Or they were, but they were a hundred bucks a pop. Anyway, great little place called the Liquidation Team in Orem. They post their stuff on KSL and have a huge storage place where they keep it all. These chairs were on there for $75 for a set of two. Brand new. We went with the notion that they only had one set. I thought if we had 2 or 3 sets of paired chairs it wouldn't look too weird. We went. When we got there I thought they didn't have them anymore. But when asked, they were in the back. I loved them at first glance. They are a "cosmopolitan creme" chair and really comfy. Plus, SURPRISE, they happened to have 2 sets, aka 4 chairs, if we wanted them. HECK YES!!

Voila! Our new and improved dining table. I think it looks amazing! And now every time Bryan and I walk into the kitchen we are shocked by how classy it looks. It really changed the fill of the room. So really this weekend has been great! Full of stuff just for me. And a little for Bryan. I even told him the chairs could be my Christmas. But not the sewing machine. I told him it was my new hobby and since we have already spent LOTS of money on his hobby of Frisbee that it was only fair. Yep, I love my logic.

Matthew's Wedding

So.....the day that everyone has been waiting for!! Well, at least on my side of the family. Lots of you know that I was doing the wedding decorations for Bryan's brother's wedding and I'm sure you are all twitterpated to find out about it. Well.....here it is!!

I had "music" and "lights" to go on, not much input from the bride and groom, and a small budget. Still, I think it came out pretty darn good.

This is the sign in table and the first thing you pretty much see. Bryan was able to get old sheet music from the Music & Dance part of the library since he used to work there and has it in good with the bosses still. Since I got it for free you will see it everywhere. Also their colors were a navy blue and ivory. The apothecary jars are mine, but why not borrow for a good cause. The lights are IKEA from me also. I painted the frame and it has a piece of sheet music called Fantasia Dramatica. I thought it fit. Also, funny thing with the sign in book(s) as you can see. I had an idea of using this old book of music and having people write in it like they did for mine, but then Mom Stiles had a normal one she brought and Sarah had a picture book with their engagements in it and spaces to write why they are perfect for one another or date ideas. Since we already had two, I didn't put out mine, but funny how out of everything, this is the one thing that we had multiples of.

You'll notice a big canvas print in the back of the picture. I absolutely loved the one at my wedding, so Bryan and I thought we would pass it on, so that was our gift because those things are not cheap. Luckily I got a deal on it. Seriously, this wedding has made me one savvy, saving girl!!

Then you walk in and it looks like this. Again, sorry for the fuzziness, but my phone camera really doesn't focus that well. Luckily the photographer will have much better pictures. I publicly thank my husband, his brothers and Dad Stiles for putting this up. It was MUCH more difficult than previously imagined. But after hours and hours, they made it work. The muslin and tulle was the most expensive items I got. BUT, Joann's was having a 60% off on any one item, so heck yes I bought over 60 yards! All together I think the fabric was around $70. Thank you Joann's!! And the awesome lights were from Uncle Ken and Aunt Becky from Alex's wedding this past summer. So the whole false ceiling was just the fabric (and some hard work).

Next we come to the centerpieces. I think they turned out really well. We didn't have the funds to get flowers so I found this idea. I would take it for myself, but that would be lying. I found it while googling. But don't let that fool you. It was kinda hard to find and I would saw one picture this it, but rolled sheet music. Pretty ingenious, right? The big vases came from Mom Stiles along with the gold ribbon, which was actually used as Bryan and my's open house. I got the little vases at DI of course and painted them a metallic blue so that they sparkled. The yellowish flower was actually 90% off at Hobby Lobby the week of Thanksgiving because they were bringing in their Christmas stuff so I got a whole bouquet bunch for $1.20. I just cut it apart and viola! Then Bryan has been making and eating salsa out the wazoo so that we had lots of tin cans and I just bought some blue ribbon to make them cute. Of course using a 40% off coupon. The books were all hard back that we got for a buck a piece (which is a great deal because they are at least $4 at DI, but we found a second-hand store that was selling them for $1 a piece!) and obviously I spray painted them white. Lastly the white table clothes came from BYU (thank you Leone for getting me the MTC price so they were on $2 to rent), the blue ones Mom Stiles had again from another wedding and the gold ones were once again from my open house. Look at that! A whole table for about $5.50!! Woot!!!! Times that by 8 tables, about $45.

You may notice the chairs are not covered. Totally not in the budget, but lucky this stake center had the nicer plastic chairs (not the ugly folding ones) and the color matched the wedding, so I left them.

The gift table it next. Again, you have my IKEA lights, a wreath I made from blue tulle for $3.50 and a old torn up violin case that I found at that same second-hand store. How perfect! I was doing a music theme anyways right? $5. The little banner was make from sheet music, painted doilies and some cool old letters I printed off. It says Mr. & Mrs. Stiles. Total price, $2. Also notice the reusing of the tin can and some flowers I'll get to later. Table = $10.50.
The cake table. We used the glasses from my wedding and that is the trifle bowl we got as a gift from our wedding also. We used it to chill the Sparkling Cider. The mirror was a pack of 6 so it was $9, but they got to keep the rest and they were SUPPOSED to go on the doors that I was going to put up (again like my wedding) but the ceiling took SOOO long that we just didn't have time to transport them, so they were sacrificed. I still think it turned out okay though.
The food table. They had some little Hispanic woman make the tamales. I'm not sure about the beans, but it was all delicious!!! I found the two large jars at DI for $4. They just matched so well that I couldn't pass them up. And Larissa will notice the "S". Yep, that's mine too. Gosh I have a ton of stuff. I don't know if that is a good thing or not.

Instead of a large cake they had the little one they cut. That was because they had these babies. Homemade cream puffs. I don't even like cream puffs, but even I will say these were pretty darn good.

Now back to the flowers I had mentioned. I folded all of these little suckers! They are a five piece origami flower. I think I did over 20 of them. Mostly at work. Oops. Everyone loved them. Actually I don't even know what happened to them. They disappeared because people wanted them. And that was fine by me. I was just going to throw them away anyway. I just needed filler stuff, you know. That little embellishment. And these were perfect. And the cost.....free!!!

There were big ones, little ones and medium ones. It just depends on the sheet music size.
Well, there you have it. We were just a little bit over our budget, but Rachael's mother was generous and overpaid us. I'd like to think it was because it was more than anyone expected. Maybe I can make a business out of thrift weddings? Oh, and of course the sealing was beautiful. Don't worry, I didn't forget the important part of this whole thing.

Birthday

Well, now that it is the 9th I feel it is about time for me to sit down and write about my birthday.....which was 4 days ago. Work has just been so busy that I haven't had time to catch my breath. And, yes, I write my blog at work. I rarely, if ever, get on the computer when I'm at home and writing my blog gives me a little mental break while I'm here. Anyway, back to my birthday.....

I'm 24. Twenty-four. Vingt-quatre. Veinticuatro. Translation: I'm ANCIENT! Just kidding!! But I will admit that going on 25--a quarter of a century--does freak me out just a little. Not that I mind aging. Getting old doesn't scare me, but wondering where the last year went does. I feel that the older I get the quicker time flies by. High school felt like forever, college felt like a dream, and now I've been working at my job for a year and a half and I really can't believe it. Wait, I did it again, back to my birthday.....

I have an amazing husband. But anyone reading this already knows that. I slept in because it was my birthday and I could. And sleeping in was like 8:45. Ugh, what happen to sleeping in until 10:00 or 11:00? I miss those days. Well, I get up, brush my hair and teeth, wash my face, put in my contacts and expect to see Bryan on the couch with his computer or something, but I don't. I walk into the living room and he has lit a fire and some candles and has my presents all piled up. It was so romantical. (That's a quote from a movie--I do not speak that way.) A few minutes later he walks in with a bouquet of orange-red roses (because they look like Fall and he knows I love those colors) and breakfast from Kneaders.

After we ate I unwrapped my presents. He got me "Inception" on Blu-ray, which is one of the most awesome movies ever. He also got me the book, Fablehaven. He knows I have this thing for young adult fiction. I think it's usually more fun and so much cleaner than adult (especially chick-lit) fiction! Plus it is one of his favorite books and he has been trying to get me to read it for a pretty long time. No better way than to buy it for me. And I'll admit--so far it's pretty good. He got me a pair of gloves, but not just ANY gloves. They look normal, but on the pointer finger and thumb it has a special magnet something-or-another in it so that my touch phone registers it!! If that doesn't make sense, basically it allows me to work my phone without taking off my gloves and freezing my hands. This is ingenious!!! I've frozen my hands so many times because I can't get my phone to work through gloves. And it has some gripper stuff on the palm of the glove so that I won't drop my phone. I think this must be one of the most thoughtful gifts! He knows I'm basically freezing at all times and bought me something to fix it. Let's see.....he also got me a set of ramekins. This will save our poor little mugs from being cooked once a week when I make us Molten Chocolate Cake. Yum! I'm so excited to use them. Plus they make me feel like a real baker. He got me a multi-use cake plate too. It is a stand with cover, a veggie tray with dip holder. A drink and/or soup tureen and many other things. I've actually wanted a cake plate, although I don't think I've ever told Bryan. I guess he may be able to read my mind. Creepy. He also got me chocolates. What can I say? I'm a chocolaholic. Finally he got me a watch. And I mean a nice one! Anne Klein. I love it. It's modern with a little of old-world charm. Plus it has a diamond. He certainly knows me.

Bryan also got me a card. It was so cute and sweet. He wrote me a note and I cried. I'm such a baby. But I love him, so that's excuse enough for me.

After that he went to the MTC to volunteer French speaking with senior missionaries and I watched an episode of Vampire Diaries. I REALLY hate to admit I watch that show. But I was bored one day and there is all this hype about it and I had to see what was going on. Now I'm addicted. Plus, how bad does it sound that my husband was volunteering and I was watching a teenage drama? Oh well, it was my birthday and I reserve the right to do what I want.

Later I made a cake for myself. Not that Bryan wouldn't have done it, but I wasn't doing anything. It was a pumpkin chocolate cake with orange (in color and flavor) cream cheese

frosting with a semisweet chocolate glaze. Emily used to make it for me for my birthday before. Plus I had a brand new cake plate. It was delicious! I have it on good authority. My own. Just kidding, Uncle Ken and Aunt Becky and everyone else said it was good. And I trust that they weren't just being nice.....kind of.

This also lets you see my cake plate!

Well, for dinner we went to Communal. Oh my goodness!!!! AMAZING!!!! Chef's own it so all the food is really good and stuff that you wouldn't think goes together, well, goes together. And you can't understand half the menu because you don't know all the terms--so you KNOW it has to be good. It is such a chic place. I love it!! You just feel sophisticated. I was meant to eat in places like this.

After dinner we went to the dollar theater (after spending that much on dinner--although completely worth it--the dollar theater seemed about right). We saw Cowboys & Aliens. It was pretty entertaining.

So anyway, I had an amazing birthday and Bryan made everything wonderful!!

What have I learned? I love GREAT food and it is worth the cost. I eat too much chocolate, but I can't stop myself. My job seems to get better and better. My husband is the best (not that I learned that, but I believe it deserves being stated anyway). I miss my family, but I know I'll see them sooner rather than later hopefully. I'm kind of a terrible teacher, but getting better. And I give the best parties. Yeah, deep stuff, I know. Anyway, Happy Birthday to me!! Love you all!!!

Trick or Treat!

Happy Halloween!!

I love Halloween. It is one of my favorite holidays. I love dressing up and throwing parties and eating candy and it is what I consider to be the beginning of the "holiday season." Hence, it has a lot of good things going for it. This year, much like last year, I decided to through a Halloween movie night. I was debating it for a while since there is always that worry that people won't show up and the process of actually getting everything together, but Korina convinced me that I should and I knew that at least her and Nathan would be there.

So, I'm big into the decorating thing. I love having that "feel" to a place when it is decorated for a holiday. And I kept seeing all these cute ideas in Country Living, Home and Garden and Martha Stewart magazines. Anyway, here was my attempt at chic Halloween with an Edgar Allen Poe feel.

Notice the skull, apothecary jars, tattered book, candles.....yeah, I'm good.

And the raven.

We covered the chairs in black satin and the couch in white with only dreary pillows to brighten the place up. Haha. Pun intended.

Then our fireplace with black candles and stacks of books, shredded cheese cloth and leaves to finish it off.

I think the overall affect is quite good. What do you think?

Everyone looked so good for the party! I truly thought that Bryan and I would be the only ones dressed up, but everyone showed up in mourning! I loved it!! We watched Hocus Pocus and everyone had a really great time. I know....they told me. And we even had butternut squash soup from a pumpkin and rootbeer from a dry ice cauldron.

Can you guess WHO Bryan is? And that is totally a hint.

Does this help?

Okay, does THIS help? No....Well, he is totally Doctor Who. If you don't watch it. Start. Enough said.

This is not the costume I wore for the party, but to our ward party the next night. I call it Pride & Prejudice & Zombies. You can't really see the deadly makeup. At the party it was similar because of the hat, but I was a dead horseback rider with my khaki pants, riding boots, frilly collared shirt with a black riding jacket and crazy eyes.

Here, I wore it to work today too. This is what I was for the party.

Once again, Martha was my inspiration.

Anyways, it was a great weekend. We had a blast. Maybe I will get the energy to do a Thanksgiving party, but with Matt's wedding, I doubt I'll get to it. Plus Bryan and I need to recuperate. My parties always take a lot out of you. Just ask Emily.

1st Anniversary

So this past Sunday was our first anniversary!! Can you believe? Me neither. I must say that I have married one of the best men in the world! He is so wonderful, funny, caring, and handsome. I am so blessed to be sealed to him forever!!

For our anniversary this year we obviously celebrated on Saturday. I "made" us cinnamon rolls in the morning (thank you Rhodes Rolls!) and we spent the morning going to DI and stuff to see what old frames and books we could find for Bryan's brother's upcoming wedding---which I will be doing the decorations for!! Exciting!! I have some simple, crafty ideas that I think will look great. Anyway, then we got all ready and headed up to Salt Lake. We had reservations at The Roof (which Mom has always told me I HAD to go to one day---well, Saturday was that day). It was delicious!! And all the views are great, but our's was super-great! And they have a live pianist and she happened to play all the songs I would want her to play like Somewhere in Time, Rachmaninoff, and Claire de Lune. What are the chances? It's like she knew it was my anniversary.

I know that we are just so cute. And I had to take a picture because it seems like we never do it nowadays. And then we had tickets for the Utah Opera. The opera was Beethoven's only, Fidelio. It is a story about a wife who basically saves her husband from prison and death. It was very women-empowered which I didn't really expect from an opera from 1805. It was amazing and our seats were really pretty good. And we got to walk around Salt Lake which is really cool although it may not seem like it all the time.
After the opera was over it was past 10:00pm and all the Church Buildings were closed. Sadly, our car was parking under the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. I was so worried that we couldn't get our car and would have to stay in a really chic hotel in Salt Lake. That would have just been the end of the world! But a side door was open and we safely got to our car. We even got to exit the VIP side and didn't have to pay the 5 hours for parking. It was pretty cool. Overall a wonderful night!! Thank you, my love, for everything!!!!

BYU Football

I just had to blog about how my job can be pretty cool sometimes. We have been doing some advertising with BYUtv and so they gave Dean 2 tickets to the game last Saturday. Since Dean already has season tickets, he gave the tickets to me if I wanted them. They were pretty good seats and they had set up those cushy seat things with the back rests for us. We were also fortunate to sit next to some really cool people--they were so much better than students--and they were all families. It was probably some of the best fun I have ever had at a game.

Then Dean told me to get in contact with Aaron, our Concessions Manager (who I know really well), and ask him for some vouchers. It took a little while to find him in the stadium, but we did and he was awesome enough to give us all the yellowy-orange and red vouchers. The red ones are for the subcontractors (things like Costa Vida) and are redeemed for $10.00, while the yellowy-orange ones are for BYU Concessions for $3.50. We had somewhere around $60 to spend all for free! We had so much food it was ridiculous and we shared some of our fries with the kids from the family we sat next to. And we WON!!!! It was so great! And all because I have a pretty darn good job!

Utah State Fair

Last Saturday, Bryan and I went to the Utah State Fair. I have to admit that it has nothing on the Texas State Fair. I sometime miss Big Tex. But still, it gives us something to do on a Saturday and we had fun anyway walking around and seeing the exhibits. This year they had sea lions who would take pictures with you. They were pretty darn cool.

Next we went to the photography exhibit and looked through hundreds of pictures. Some of them were really amazing. We had to take a picture of this so that we could brag about our sister in law.
That's right! Sarah got second place in her category. Great job Sarah!!
We, of course, had to eat our once-in-a-year greasy, deep-fried food and so we stopped and watched a show at the same time. The show at the time was called Tagaloa and it was Pacific Island dancing. Yay!!
A picture of us at the fair. I really wish my front camera took better pictures, but it works I guess.
We walked through all the cows, sheep, goats, pigs, bunnies, birds, 4-H clubs, garden, anything else you can think of areas and lasted end with Aussie Kingdom. We got to see kangaroos. I find it kinda sad that they are put in cages and on display when they usually hop around everywhere, but it was cool seeing them.
Later that night we had the privilege of watching BYU majorly loss to the Utes, but so is life. At least we were able to spend time with one of Bryan's old mission buddies and his family. So in the end, it was a great weekend!

Newest Addition

So, Bryan and I have really been wanting this fluffy pillow from Pier 1. It is the softest, most fluffy, bestest pillow ever. (see below) Anyway, it FINALLY went on sale and I told Bryan that he had to go and pick it up after work. So, being the good husband he is, he did. But being the BEST husband ever, he saw this chair and proceeded to hurry home with pictures of it to tell me about it so that I could decide if I wanted it. We've been looking for a chair for a while now, but just haven't found a good deal for one we like. I LOVE that Bryan 1) knows what I like 2) now knows a good deal on furniture when he sees one and 3) lets me buy things. So I saw the pictures and we scurried on back up to Pier 1 (all while having tickets to a movie at the dollar theater in less than half an hour) and bought it on the spot. Yeah, we thought it was that good of a deal. Plus I love the color and shape!!

So now I have a green and red chair next to one another and I love it!! Now I am in the works of getting a fat, squatty red pillow for the green chair to counteract the wonderfully large white one and tie everything together. Which, come by and cuddle with the white one. You'll love it.

Us

Just some pictures of us. This was at Alex's wedding. Sorry they are a little fuzzy.

Rockin' Chair

I finally remembered to take a picture of the finished rocking chair (which has been done for like 2 or 3 months now) so now I can post about it. I guess there isn't much to say. It was old and rickety, the paint was coming off and it was brown. Like old 70's brown. So we changed it. We were debating between white and red, but decided on red since we needed color somewhere and we'll just paint it again if we want to change it in the future. So after many hours of working on it.....here is our "new" rocking chair.

Yes, we took it apart and sanded the whole thing.....by hand.

In pieces.

All sanded and back together again---much more sturdy too with new glue.

Primer. So this is what it would look like white.

RED!! Please don't look at it and think it looks really bright. It doesn't in person, it was just late at night with terrible overheard lighting. It looks great in person. Everyone compliments it.

So yep, Bryan and I can do things if we put our mind to it.